I saw the fire in your eyes

 

Continuing my visit to the top of the album charts with yet another little-known artist who desperately needs the exposure!

14/01/22 : Dawn FM - The Weeknd

The Weeknd, you say?  (yeah, yeah - enough with that already).  I've come across Mr Weeknd before and I liked his voice and his general sound but found some of the content very objectionable indeed.  However, the singles I've heard from him since that album haven't seemed to be quite so rude, so I had reasonable hopes for this.

And yeah, I really quite liked it indeed.  There was quite a Michael Jackson feel to it - well crafted songs with a tenor/soprano vocal.  "Take My Breath" is a very fine track indeed with a nice hint of disco to it and personally I think a hint of disco is all you really need - any more than that and it all gets a bit too much!  And the same comment applies for "Sacrifice" but referring to funk instead.  It all sounded very good over headphones indeed - fine strong bass and a nice expansive sound.  

I also think he uses his guest appearances (Tyler, Lil Wayne, Quincy Jones & Jim Carrey amongst others) well - they blend into the general theme pretty seamlessly (which certainly isn't always the case with these efforts).  One minor criticism is that I'm not entirely convinced by the Dawn FM theme running through the album - it all feels a bit half-hearted and pointless to me.  I do like the album cover though - he's gonna be a good looking old geezer (like me, obviously!)

Considering this week's chart, we're back with the #1 album - it went straight to the top spot in the week of its release (which isn't a huge surprise) and I suspect we'll be seeing it hanging around for a bit.  I do have some concerns as to exactly how many singles we'll see from it - although, to be fair, he "only" released four from After Hours, his 2016 album.

Wikipedia has a reasonable amount on the album (385 milliPeppers) tells me the album recalls 80s acts such as Depeche Mode and Duran Duran - and, being a fan of 80s acts such the aforementioned artists, I can confirm that this never occurred to me.  Yes, it uses 80s synths - but who doesn't these days?  It does also mention MJ though - I'll let them have that one.  The critics liked it a lot and it's done well commercially so far - although I was surprised it's "only" got to #2 in the US so far, kept off the top by Gunna (a rapper, apparently) and the Encanto soundtrack (which my daughters love, but I was somewhat surprised to see it had got to #1).

I think this is easily the best of the chart topping albums I've reviewed so far (out of a grand total of three) - it's certainly not my usual sort of thing but there's a lot to admire here and, unlike Beauty Behind The Madness, there's not a lot to abhor.  It's certainly worth a listen and I expect I'll revisit it - and I'm also tempted to go and listen to After Hours.  So thank you, Mr Weeknd!

07/01/22 - Not what I was expecting
21/01/22 - Growing up isn't always a good thing